The Cardo Maximus is a Museum under the open sky, a remarkable monument of the Byzantine era, allowing to understand the scope and power of the sunk into Oblivion civilization. It is dedicated to the main street of the Roman city Aelia Capitolina, built in the II century on the ruins of Jerusalem.

The Romans totally destroyed Jerusalem twice: during the First Jewish-Roman war in 70 ad and after a bloody Bar Kochba revolt of 132-135 years, when the Jews were in fact expelled from Palestine.

Furious tenacity, demonstrated the rebellious Jews, the Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of the ruins of Jerusalem a Roman colony. Called it Aelia Capitolina, combining two words: Elias – one of the names of the Emperor, Edna – the name of the hill in Rome, where he was the Capitol, the temple of Jupiter. In the new town, the Romans also built pagan sanctuaries: Jupiter on the Temple mount, Venus – where now stands the Church of the Holy sepulchre.

Aelia Capitolina was built on the model of the Roman project. The main street going from North to South, was called, as in all Roman cities, the Cardo Maximus (the main pipeline "East – West" was called the Cardo Decumanus). The Cardo Maximus was the main center of economic and social life: here the townspeople traded, exchanged news, met.

In 1894, at St. George Orthodox Church in Madaba (Jordan) was found mosaic map-mural of the Holy land, created by the Byzantines in the sixth century. On the map you can clearly see the plan of Jerusalem, had already regained its former name: it crosses the long straight street, which is known Cardo Maximus.

The highway during the reign of Emperor Justinian (first half of sixth century) found in 1975, when he began the project of development of the Jewish quarter. Archaeologists have unearthed in the center of the block section of the street is 150 meters in length. Well seen its device: the Cardo Maximus is paved with large stone slabs, the roadway has a width of 12 meters, convenient sidewalks framed by a continuous chain of retail stores. From the sun and rain benches were protected by roofs, relying on two beautiful, full length of the street, the Corinthian colonnade. The overall width of the street with sidewalks and benches – 22, 5 meters, which roughly corresponds to the modern six-line highway. The rains had flooded the highway: the Roman engineers have provided excellent drainage system.

The excavated section of the Cardo Maximus is several feet below the modern streets of the Jewish quarter, down here on the stairs. Columns along the street – original, preserved from the Byzantine era, as part of the slabs. No less interesting and uncovered by archaeologists more ancient cultural layers under the Cardo Maximus. Rather steep stairs you can go down to a depth of several tens of meters. Here lie the ruins belonging to the early Roman period and the era of the Hasmoneans (I–II century BC), to the era of the First Temple (VIII century BC). They can be seen through the glass doors in a modern shopping center, which traditionally runs along the current Cardo.